


A Thin Line

by LordValeryMimes



Category: Red Dwarf
Genre: Angst, Intercrural Sex, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Oral Sex, Prison Sex, Shower Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-28
Updated: 2015-01-28
Packaged: 2018-03-09 09:23:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3244463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LordValeryMimes/pseuds/LordValeryMimes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rimmer pushes Lister over the edge during their imprisonment in the Tank, in more ways than one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Thin Line

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a bit terrible and messy, but I was honestly just tired of looking at it, and so I set it free!
> 
> Thanks to Rob Grant and Doug Naylor for creating these characters so I could make them get up to all sorts of smeg together.

"Six hours spent scrubbing out the men's toilets, Lister. Six hours!"  
  
A beleaguered sigh wafted through the doorway to the shared cell as Rimmer marched through, followed by a sullen looking Lister.   
  
"Look I've already apologized fifty-seven smegging times. I don't know what else you want from me." Lister's voice had a marked edge of irritation to it as he stamped his boots with every step.

"I'm never going to get the smell of sanitizer out from underneath my fingernails," Rimmer said with a grimace as he scrutinized his cuticles. "I'm not meant to be doing menial labour like this. I'm supposed to be an officer. I should be captain of this ship, not scrubbing out the remnants of twelve years worth of petrified urinal cakes."  
  
Lister gnashed his teeth in frustration. "But you're not an officer, Rimmer. And all your whinging's not doing a damn thing except making _me_ miserable. So could you just put a smegging lid on it already? You've been going on and on about this for hours." Lister groaned as he bent to undo the laces of his boots. He began to wonder why he'd ever found himself missing this man. But then he remembered that this wasn't the same man that he’d been missing at all. It was the hologram version of Rimmer who he'd spent so many years with, and with whom he’d formed an unlikely attachment. It was hard to keep it straight in his head sometimes, since this Rimmer was so much like the hologram, the one he'd come to think of as _his_ Rimmer. Being flesh and blood didn't make this Rimmer any less of a completely insufferable smeghead. If anything, it made him worse.

"Well it's no skin off your nose if we spend the best years of our lives scrubbing out toilets, is it, Lister?" Rimmer said with an irritated sniff as he began to untie his own boots. "You've never had any interest in improving your position on this ship. You've got less ambition than the fungus growing in your pants drawer."

Lister glared at his cell-mate as he straightened up to unzip his lavender jumpsuit. It was maddening how quickly any Rimmer, living or hologram, seemed to have an uncanny knack for saying just the right thing to get completely under his skin. "Look, I'm sick of talking about this. You can keep on with your grumbling all smegging night for all I care, but leave me out of it."

Lister let his jumpsuit drop to the ground and glanced back at his cell-mate. Rimmer was staring at him from his crouched position, intensely enough that Lister imagined he could feel heat from Rimmer's eyes burning into his skin. Lister felt a shiver pass over him as he tried to ignore the unspoken sexual charge in the gaze. How many years had he spent, trying to pretend that Rimmer's glances were nothing more than just glances? As he stared back at his cell-mate, some all-too familiar feelings were stoked within him. Fury, but fury lit from underneath with something far more powerful than just two men who didn't get on with one another. Lister turned away from Rimmer's stare and tried to act casual, "I'm having a shower. And try and keep it down while I'm in there. I don't think anyone's ever managed to drown themselves in a shower, but I'm more than willing to be the first to attempt it."  
  
Rimmer sprang up and stepped in front of Lister, blocking his path to the shower. "Just what do you think you're doing, miladdio? I'm the superior crew-member here. I get the shower first." Rimmer puffed out his chest, his posture doing little to mask the nervousness flitting across his features as he looked down at Lister. Lister stretched himself up to his full height and leaned into his cell-mate. Although he was still shorter than Rimmer by several inches, the taller man let out a plaintive squeak. Lister could feel the hard press of Rimmer's well-muscled body against him and flashes of a dream began to race unbidden through his mind. He and Rimmer, grappling at one another, mouths locked together tighter than a pair of restraints. Lister brought his eyes back into focus and fixed them on Rimmer as he fought to keep a clear head. "Smeg off Rimmer. I called it. The shower's mine," he stepped back from his cell-mate and went to grab his towel from the wall.

Rimmer's face glowed red and his nostrils flared widely as he began to shrug out of his own jumpsuit. He pushed past Lister and barricaded the opening of the shower stall. "Not a chance Listy. It's all your fault that we were put on cleaning duty, and I'm getting that shower first, whether you like it or not."  Rimmer used his longer limbs to his advantage to fend off Lister, and quickly slipped inside the shower stall, closing the curtain behind him.

Lister twisted his towel in his hands as he fumed; rage and arousal both fighting within him to tip the scales in their favor. Rimmer's jumpsuit and boxers were suddenly flung over the top of the stall where they landed on Lister's face with a splat. The low growl that built in Lister's throat was muted by the sound of running water as Rimmer started the shower. "You are _not_ getting away with this one Rimsy," Lister thought. Futilely, he tried to suppress the mental picture that his brain kept conjuring up, of Rimmer, wet in the shower. Lister angrily flung Rimmer's jumpsuit to the floor and peeled off his own flimsy boxers. He was infuriated, both with his cell-mate for being such an arse, and with himself for being so inexplicably turned on by the whole situation. Trying to ignore the fact that he was half-hard, he yanked open the curtain and was immediately blasted with a shrill shriek. Rimmer shrank back against the wall of the stall as he struggled to cover himself.   
  
"ListerhowdareyoucomeinherewhileI'mshowering!" Rimmer's voice hit a pitch that could break glass as Lister stepped into the stall with him. "What the smeg are you doing? Get out! Get out!" Rimmer punctuated his shrieks with vigorous gesturing towards the shower curtain, with the hand that wasn't covering his groin.

Lister stood firmly and met Rimmer's agitated eyes with a nonchalant gaze. "I called the shower Rimsy, if you want me to get out, why don't you go ahead and make me?" Lister stepped into the spray, pressing himself up against Rimmer's side before shutting the curtain behind him.

Rimmer tried to shimmy himself further away from Lister, but there was simply no room in the tiny shower stall. "Get out of here Lister!" He yelled. He attempted to push Lister towards the curtain with his shoulder, keeping his hands cupped discretely over his crotch.   
  
"No," Lister said firmly, turning so he faced his cell-mate. In stark contrast to Rimmer's agitation and embarrassment, Lister stood unabashedly, his arms resting at his sides. A smirk twitched at the corners of Lister's mouth as he noticed Rimmer's eyes drop perceptively downward before bugging out slightly. Instinctively, Lister's own eyes dropped downward as well, taking in Rimmer's smooth, naked skin as it glistened under its light coating of water and soap. The muscles in Rimmer's arms bulged as he held himself in an awkwardly modest crouch. Lister hated to admit to himself just how good Rimmer looked naked. He bit down on his lower lip as he fought back against his baser instincts, the ones that were telling him to jump on this man and feel every inch of that naked skin. After a brief shake to clear the thoughts from his head, Lister reached for the soap and quickly began to lather up his chest, while Rimmer sputtered in embarrassment.

"Lister, I'm not going to tell you again to get out of here," Rimmer's face grew increasingly red as he watched Lister soaping himself up.

"Good," Lister said, tilting his head under the spray of the nozzle, letting the water cascade around his ears. "I'm tired of listening to you prattle on."

"I am not going to just stand here and take this Listy! Now you get out of here or I'll... I'll..."

"You'll what, Rimmer?" Lister's voice deepened as he turned back to his cell-mate and closed the tiny gap between them so they were pressed together, skin against slick skin. Lister felt the steady warmth of Rimmer's wet thighs against his. He looked his cell-mate up and down slowly, halting his gaze at Rimmer's smoldering hazel eyes. Lister felt tingles spreading across every inch of his skin as the energy between them crackled. Lister's eyes followed the path of Rimmer's tongue as he licked his lips nervously, and it took all of his self control to not pounce on him.

"I'll... I'll report you for this. We might be prisoners for the moment, but I'm still your superior, miladdio," Rimmer replied weakly as he shifted his hands around on his crotch. "And Space Corps directive 1760-B clearly states..."

The Space Corps directive was more than Lister could stand. Before he even knew what he was doing, his hands were on Rimmer's shoulders shoving him up against the wall of the stall. "For smeg's sake Rimmer would you just shut up for once? I'm so smegging tired of this back and forth between us."

"Take your hands off of me, Lister," Rimmer grunted as he tried to wriggle away from his cell-mate.

"No. I've had enough of this. I've spent way too many years alone in space putting up with you and this phony act and I'm done Rimmer, I'm well and truly smegging done." Lister's brown eyes were nearly black with emotion as he glared at Rimmer.

"It was that _other_ Rimmer who you were gallivanting about in space with Lister, not me. Remember? And what are you talking about? What act?" Lister couldn't help but notice that Rimmer's cheeks seemed to lose some of their color.

Lister gestured back and forth between both of their chests with a pointed finger. "I mean _this_ Rimmer. This right here. This game we're both playing at, that we've been playing for smeg knows how long."

Rimmer's expression grew fearful as he spluttered, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Lister leaned in so their noses were nearly touching. "I know you Rimmer, probably better than you know yourself at this point. It's not just that I've spent time with you. I've literally had my mind put inside of your body. I've navigated through the swamps and dungeons of a planet terraformed by your own smegged-up psyche. I've rescued you from being brutalized at the hands of a beast created from your own self-loathing. I've been tortured at the hands of the physical embodiment of all of your worst qualities." Rimmer's eyes grew wide and frightened as Lister continued. "I know everything about you Rimmer. I know things about you that would make your skin crawl. Things you've never, ever told anyone else. And I know that deep down, in a place you're too much of a smegging coward to even admit exists, you want me, and you've always wanted me. And a part of the reason you spend so much time driving me spare, is because you're afraid of that, and you want to deny it."

Rimmer slumped against the shower stall as Lister's words sank in. "Tha... That's absolutely preposterous Lister. Me? Want you?" Rimmer managed a weak chuckle that twisted his pallid face into that of a garish clown. "How could I ever want someone like you? I can't stand anything about you, Lister."

"Deny it all you want Rimmer, but I've heard it from your own lips. And I've seen the way you look at me, when you think no one can see." Lister lowered his hands to Rimmer's hips and pulled his cell-mate closer. Rimmer let out a gasp of surprise as Lister's cock, now standing at full attention, brushed against his inner thigh.

"I... No, this is ridiculous, Lister. I... I don't..." Rimmer struggled futilely for words that kept floating just out of reach.

Lister's eyes narrowed, "That's right, just keep on lying to yourself man." He grabbed the back of Rimmer's head and silenced any further protests with a rough kiss, that was composed of as much anger as it was desire. Rimmer fought back for just a moment, his eyes bulging out against the assault of Lister's lips and tongue while his hands ended their quest for modesty and instead feebly attempted to push Lister away.

"No Lister," Rimmer protested as he turned his face to the side. "Get off of me you... You goit." Rimmer's insult lacked its usual punch as Lister licked a long stripe up the side of his neck.

"Enough," Lister growled into Rimmer's ear as he turned his face back, pulling him into another kiss. Rimmer's answering moan deepened as Lister pressed him more firmly against the wall. "I don't want to hear another word out of you, unless it's you calling out my name, or telling me how badly you want me." Rimmer’s mouth hung open as Lister trailed his fingers slowly down the firm lines of Rimmer’s chest.

“Listy, no. This is… I don’t…”

“I said, not another word, Rimsy.” Lister’s fingers continued their journey downward where they settled in a gentle grasp around the growing hardness that he instinctively knew he would find. “Now tell me, Rimmer," he murmured softly into the folds of Rimmer’s ear as he stroked him in a long, slow pull. "Tell me that you want me."

“Listy, I…” Rimmer gasped and braced himself against the stall wall under the machinations of his cell-mate's fingers.

“Say it, Rimmer,” Lister entwined one hand in Rimmer’s damp curls while he continued pumping him with the other. He kissed him again and Rimmer answered the kiss with his own tongue, hot and desperate.

“I... I want you, Listy.” Rimmer cried out as he pulled away to catch his breath. “Oh smeg how I want you.” He ceased his pathetic show of resistance and began to pump his hips eagerly against Lister's fist.

“That’s more like it,” Lister said as his breath quickened in Rimmer's ear. He placed one hand on Rimmer's face and pulled him in for a deep kiss while he continued to stroke him with his other hand.

They clung together, a frenzy of wandering hands and searching tongues fueled by a heady cocktail that was equal parts detest and desire. Lister’s mind was on fire as years of wanting and waiting and need poured out of him in a torrent. Every inch of his body was crying out for release, release from so many years of denial and repression. He slid his fingers and tongue over Rimmer with a mad desperation, matched only by the moans that poured endlessly from their mouths.

Every moment that their lips parted, was punctuated with Rimmer's cries as he followed Lister's instructions to the letter. "Oh smeg Listy, I've wanted this for so long. Don't stop, oh smeg don't ever stop."

The two men pulled apart with a gasp as Lister held handfuls of Rimmer's wet curls in his fists. His brown eyes bored into Rimmer's hazel ones as he commanded, "I want you to suck me Rimmer."

Just a brief flicker of unease flashed in Rimmer's eyes before he obediently dropped to his knees. He balked for a moment before taking Lister into his mouth, tentatively at first, sucking on the head with slow and inexpert motions. Lister settled his fingers into Rimmer's sodden auburn curls, gently coaxing his mouth further down. Hot flashes began to trail up his back as Rimmer's tongue and mouth drove him to ecstasy. "Oh smeg, Rimmer. Oh smeggin' hell."

Rimmer moaned around his mouthful before pulling away to catch his breath and nibble gently on the soft skin of Lister's thighs. "Come here, man," Lister urged as he pulled Rimmer back to his feet. He plunged his tongue into Rimmer's mouth, and he could taste his own pre-cum, sweet and salty on his cell-mate's lips.

"Turn around," Lister murmured into Rimmer's ear as he pulled away momentarily.

Realization quickly flooded Rimmer's face and he stuttered as Lister turned him to face the shower wall. "Listy, I don't know if I can... I mean I've never..."

"Don't worry, man," Lister ran his fingers down the side of Rimmer's face reassuringly. "I know it's too soon for that. Just trust me, yeah?" Rimmer relaxed slightly against Lister's fingers, but stiffened again as Lister grabbed the bar of soap with his other hand. "Just trust me, Rimmer. I promise I'd never hurt you." Lister slid his soapy hand between Rimmer's legs, lubricating the insides of his thighs. He grasped Rimmer's hip firmly, and then reached around the other to encircle Rimmer's throbbing erection. As Rimmer pressed himself into Lister's fist, he felt Lister slide himself gently into the tight crevice formed by his inner thighs. Rimmer gasped as his cell-mate's hard prick rubbed over the sensitive skin of his perineum, and gently prodded at his balls.

Lister pressed his forehead into the wet skin of Rimmer's back and moaned at the soft friction that surrounded him. He squeezed Rimmer's cock gently as he pumped his hips slowly in and out. He found his mind wandering back to the time when he and Rimmer had switched bodies and he'd been able to well-acquaint himself with Rimmer's anatomy. He curled his fingers loosely around Rimmer's shaft, using his thumb to rub at a certain spot just below the head. The result was immediate and dramatic as Rimmer bucked his hips back against Lister and clawed desperately at the slippery shower walls. "Oh smeg Listy. Oh yes, oh smeg yes."

"Oh Rimmer, oh smeg. Why do you do this to me?" Lister bit down on Rimmer's shoulder as they moaned and writhed against one another. Lister's vision began to grow grey and shimmery as he could feel the familiar sense of pressure building up inside of him. He quickened the movement of his hand on Rimmer's cock and his cell-mate's thighs began to quiver.

"Listy. Oh, Listy. I think I'm... I'm..." Rimmer didn't have time to finish before he twitched in Lister's hand. Rimmer did his best to muffle his cries of ecstasy as he came, spilling over the shower wall.

Listening to Rimmer's moans of pleasure was all it took to push Lister up and over the brink. He grabbed Rimmer round the middle and held him tight as his orgasm pulsed through him in vivid waves. "Oh, Rimmer. Rimmer, Rimmer, Rimmer..." Lister breathed heavily into Rimmer's back as his mind filled with sparks of colour. "I love you, Rimmer. I love you so smegging much." He came hard, holding onto Rimmer like he was the only rock in the middle of an ocean.

They stood together for several moments, motionless as statues apart from the rise and fall of their chests. Rimmer felt Lister quivering behind him, and realized that his cell-mate was sobbing quietly. "Listy?" Rimmer didn't know what to say as he felt a track of hot tears carve it's way down the skin of his back.

"Why, Rimmer?" Lister sniffled as he whispered, "why did you have to leave me?"

Rimmer's heart sank heavily as the weight of Lister's words registered on him. He turned wordlessly, and pulled Lister against him in a stiff embrace. "You're talking about him aren't you? The other me, I mean. _Your_ Rimmer." 

Lister buried his face in Rimmer's chest. "I'm sorry, Rimmer. I'm sorry for all of this. I... I shouldn't have done that to you. I shouldn't have taken advantage of you like that. I'm so sorry. I dunno what happened. I dunno what came over me. I don't have any excuse for behaving like that. I'm... I'm ashamed of myself." Lister raised his hands up to cover his face.

Rimmer's brow set in an uneasy frown. "Don't apologize Listy. I was an equal participant in what just happened. I could have stopped things if I'd really wanted to. But I didn't want to." Rimmer rubbed his cheek against the damp curls on the top of Lister's head. "You were right Listy. I've always felt... things for you. Feelings that I tried to ignore."

"I've always had feelings for you too, man." Lister sighed, and the breath of air made goose flesh break out over Rimmer's wet chest.

"Listy, did the two of you... I mean you and me, that other version of me. Did you ever...?"

Lister shook his head gravely. "No. He left before I even realized how I felt about him. Once it hit me, he was already gone."

Rimmer stood silently for a moment, pressing Lister to him tenderly. "I'm here though, Listy. I'm here, and I'm still him. I mean, I'm not him-him, but I'm still me. I'm still Arnold Rimmer."

Lister chewed on his lower lip for a moment, trying to think of the right thing to say. Rimmer had a point. He _was_ Rimmer, but he also wasn't, and he never would be the same Rimmer that Lister had grown to love and hate with a passion that even took him by surprise.

Lister gazed up at Rimmer. It made his heart hurt to see the naked desperation in his cell-mate's eyes. As he stared into that achingly familiar face, he thought for a moment that maybe he _could_ make this work. Maybe he could be happy with this version of Rimmer? His fingers flexed and gripped at the firm living flesh under his hands, and he fervently wished that life and love could be as easy as that. One glance up at Rimmer's blank forehead was all it took to make his shoulders slump, and his eyes fill with sadness. "I'm sorry, Rimmer. I know that you're the same person, and that this makes no smegging sense, but it's him that I love. I'd only be doing a disservice to the both of us, if I tried to pretend that it didn't make any difference. And I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for this. For... For using you. I hate myself for it."

Rimmer swallowed heavily and turned his head away from Lister to try and hide the sudden wetness that flooded his eyes. "But what am I supposed to do Lister? He's gone and who the smeg knows if you'll ever even see him again? I'm here Lister, and I feel the same way for you. And I'm alive damn it. He left you, and for all you know he could be dead somewhere. Are you really going to be so stupid that you'd give up somebody real, somebody who's here with you right now, telling you that they want you, for somebody who you might never even see again?"

Lister's stomach clenched into knots as Rimmer's words cut into him like knives. "I'm sorry Rimmer," he sobbed through a haze of tears. "I never meant to hurt you. Smeg knows the last thing I wanted to do was to hurt you, but I can't help how I feel. I can't pretend like it doesn't matter to me. I'm so sorry. I'm so smegging sorry."

Rimmer's eyes were stony as he pushed away from Lister and shoved the shower curtain aside. "Not as sorry as I am," he mumbled as he left, closing the curtain behind him.

Lister crumpled to the floor of the stall, the water from the shower obscuring the lines of tears that were crawling down his cheeks. The water had long grown cold when he finally rose, shivering, to turn it off. He stood for several moments, listening to the water drip from the shower head with the regularity of a clock, as the cold seeped into his bones. He swiped a hand across his face, palming the cold water from it as he hung his head in shame. "What've I done? What've I smegging done?"

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Crossing The Line](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4921966) by [felineranger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/felineranger/pseuds/felineranger)




End file.
